Senior Russian official Dmitry Medvedev warned on Sunday that if Ukraine’s counteroffensive is successful, Russia may be obliged to deploy nuclear weapons. This is the latest nuclear threat issued by President Vladimir Putin’s top backer during Moscow’s invasion.
Imagine for a moment suppose the NATO-supported offensive was successful and a portion of our land was captured. The Russian Presidential Decree’s provisions would therefore force us to use nuclear weapons, stated Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, in a Telegram post.
The former Russian leader continued, “There would just be no other way out.” “Our adversaries should beg our warriors to prevent the world from engulfing in nuclear conflagration.”
Throughout Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev, the Russian president from 2008 to 2012, has adopted a bellicose demeanour and frequently invoked the possibility of nuclear war.
He issued a nuclear warning last April should Sweden and Finland join NATO. Stockholm’s path to NATO membership was eased earlier this month after Turkey abandoned its objections, while Helsinki joined the defence alliance later that month.
In September, Medvedev claimed that Russia might protect Ukrainian territories that had been annexed by it with strategic nuclear weapons.
And in January, as NATO members discussed sending more weaponry to Ukraine, Medvedev warned that a loss for Russia in the fight may spark a nuclear exchange.
In January, Medvedev posted on Telegram that “the loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war.” “Nuclear powers don’t lose significant battles in which their future is at stake.
“Anyone should understand this. even to a Western politician with even a modicum of competence.
In a rare admission from a senior Russian official, Medvedev said in his speech on Sunday that Russia may eventually lose the war after nearly 18 months of attrition.
They also occurred just after the Russian Defence Ministry accused Kiev of launching a drone attack on Moscow. A corporate and shopping complex in the western part of the Russian capital was damaged, the ministry reported, despite the fact that three drones were intercepted on Sunday.
Both privately and publicly, notably during the previous UN General Assembly, the United States has already warned Russia against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Putin said last month that Russia had transferred a first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, where they had been stationed for “deterrence.”
Putin stated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Belarus would get the remaining tactical nuclear weapons from Russia “by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.”
According to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), there is “no reason to doubt” Putin’s assertion that Belarus has nuclear weapons.
However, Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, stated at the time that the US had “not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture nor any indication Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, declared last month that he would use the Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed on Belarusian land without “hesitation” in the event of assault.
Senior DIA officials, however, asserted that they did not think Lukashenko would be in charge of the arsenal. Russian authority over it would likely be total, according to the officials.
The Federation of American Scientists estimates that Russia possesses 4,477 deployed and reserve nuclear warheads, including around 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons.